Softball Picked To Win Horizon League Title
    Vikings Are Defending Tourney Champs After 35-18 Season In 2009
    Amanda Macenko returns as the Horizon League Pitcher of the Year

    Amanda Macenko returns as the Horizon League Pitcher of the Year

    Jan. 27, 2010

    Contact: Brian McCann

    CLEVELAND, Ohio -- After winning the first Horizon League Championship in program history a season ago, the CSU softball team has been selected as the favorite to win the title again this season in a preseason poll of the head coaches in the Horizon League. The poll was released by the league office on Wednesday.

    "This is a real honor for our program," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "It shows that even though we lost a number of our starters in the field, that the rest of the league understands the strength of our recruiting class and the excellence that we have in the circle.

    "Winning the conference will not be an easy task because the rest of the teams have gotten better and it may take awhile for our offense to get back to the level it was last year. It is definitely a challenge," Nicholson added.

    With coaches not being allowed to vote for their own team, the Vikings received 63 of the possible 64 points in the poll, including seven of the eight first place votes. Defending regular season champion UIC was second, getting one first place and seven second place votes, good for 57 points.

    Wright State was picked to finish third with one first place vote and 46 points total. Butler and Loyola were tied for fourth with 38 points each while Valparaiso (37 points) was sixth, Green Bay (22) seventh, Youngstown State (15) eighth and Detroit (8) was picked ninth.

    This is the second straight season that the Vikings are the preseason favorite in the league race. CSU returns five starters and 12 letterwinners from a year ago, including two-time Horizon League Pitcher of the Year Amanda Macenko, who begins her senior season having won a CSU record 80 games in career.

    The Vikings will also benefit from the return of senior Lia Gordon, who earned first team all-league honors last season after leading the league with a school record 13 homeruns.

     

     

    Cleveland State opens the 2010 schedule by playing four games in three days at the Troy Cox Invitational in Las Cruces, New Mexico.